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Lowell students learn new way to get SMART

By Sarah Favot, sfavot@lowellsun.com

Updated:
11/19/2012 06:35:37 AM EST

LOWELL -- Most of the 20 second-graders sitting cross-legged on the carpet in front of the board during teacher Dale Burns' reading lesson had a hand waving in the air, dying to be called upon to get a chance to go to the board.

The board was not an ordinary chalkboard that many people of an even not-so-much-older generation remember of their school days, but an electronic SMART Board connected to the teacher's laptop with curriculum software that contains interactive activities for students.

Burns credits the enthusiasm for the lesson to the introduction of the SMART Board in September.

"Now they get disappointed if they don't have a chance to come up to the board," she said.

Burns' Pawtucketville Memorial Elementary School classroom was one of the recipients of about 4,000 new technology devices added to the Lowell Public Schools this year.

The School Committee made its biggest investment in technology to date -- $4.1 million this year. About $2.7 million covers the initial purchase and lease payments, while $1.35 million will cover the lease payments in 2014 and 2015.

Director of Information, Communication and Technology Services William Silver was hired by the district this summer to oversee the technology roll-out. He has a staff of seven technicians and support personnel, one help-desk coordinator, one webmaster and two integration specialists.

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Silver said the deployment of 4,000 devices in less than five months was probably one of the quickest and largest deployments for a school district.

Every teacher and administrator in kindergarten through eighth-grade schools received a new Apple MacBook Pro laptop, which gives them the ability to bring their computer home with them. A lot of teachers spend time at home preparing their lessons, and instead of switching between two devices, or bringing their personal laptop to work, they'll be able to bring the district-provided laptop home, which was important to the School Committee, Silver said.

Two Apple iMac desktop computers were placed in every K-8 classroom, with an additional 20 iMacs provided to each school, to be distributed by the school principal.

Each K-8 and alternative school received a cart of 30 MacBook computers and a cart of 30 Apple iPads that will be available to be signed out to individual classrooms.

Lowell High School received four carts of 30 iPads.

Silver said each student has been assigned an account to log in the shared devices. Any information students want to save on the iPads or MacBooks will be stored for the next time the student uses it.

Five computer labs at Lowell High School received new iMac desktops.

One-hundred twelve SMART Boards have been deployed throughout the district.

Silver said teachers have embraced the new technology.

"Teachers in Lowell have been really anticipating these changes and looking forward to a lot of them," he said.

He said the company that provides software for the SMART Boards provides training for teachers after school and it is getting 100 sign-ups per week.

Burns said the four teachers who have a SMART Board at Pawtucketville meet every Thursday morning to share ideas about how to use the board.

"It's a lot of work for teachers, but the more they start to use it, it's just going to become part of their daily work," said Silver.

Deputy Superintendent of Finance and Operations Jay Lang said the School Committee hired a consultant to conduct a 10-year technology plan. This roll-out is the first three-year phase of the plan.

Lang said when the district was going through several years of budget cuts, the School Committee prioritized keeping jobs and making cuts in other areas, including technology.

Lang said this year's budget was the first time it was stable enough to make an investment in technology.

Another task that Silver and his team have been working on is updating the school's website.

Silver said the new website will launch Dec. 3.

Every teacher in the district will have the ability to create their own website.

At the SMART Board in Burns' class on Wednesday, students were learning about synonyms.

After hearing from several students what they thought a "synonym" was, Burns wiped away the box on the board using her fist to reveal the definition.

The students also played interactive activities on the board.

Students had to fill in the synonym from an underlined word in a sentence from a list of multiple-choice answers by touching the correct answer on the board.

If the answer was correct, applause echoed through the speakers on the side of the board. If a student clicked the wrong answer, a voice saying, "Oh good grief," answered back.

Burns said the students aren't afraid of the technology. She said when they're at home, they are using their parents' iPads or iPhones, so they expect to be able to do the same thing at school.

She said when a student is struggling with a concept, she'll bring them up to the board and since they are able to manipulate words or numbers themselves on the board, they're able to grasp concepts more easily than using a pencil and paper.

"It's changed the way I teach. It's changed the way I plan," said Burns.

Katrina Lutkus, a third-grade teacher at Pawtucketville Memorial, said she spends about half the day using the SMART Board and plans to expand its use to more subjects.

On Wednesday, her students were learning how to tell time using the board. When Lutkus picked a name out of a bucket for one of the students to go to the board to begin the first activity, the students who were not called upon sighed.

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